Thread: Beginning carving

Originally Posted by LiliB

I tried some pine, and found the fibres mangled

It sounds like your chisels are not sharp enough

There are better carving timbers than pine but it does carve ok.

hi Lilly

I have to second echnida's reply. When pine does that, yep, the chisels need sharpening.

How about some camphor laurel? Straight grained camphor should carve easily enough.

Other good carving timbers are lime wood and butternut, though these two may be a bit hard to source

cheers
Wendy

camphor laurel is the best for a beginner. In fact I think second only to white beech.
camphor cuts clean and will hold detail. Cheap and easy to get in any size.

Terry

Originally Posted by LiliB

.... I tried some pine, and found the fibres mangled at the hands of a beginner. I only had some small chisels to work with, and found that I wasn't skilled enough with hand tools to achieve much....

It's usually the case , LiliB -skill comes with practice . Don't know about the Dremel reciprocating shaft , but I had that "dedicated" tool- only mine was AEG, not Proxon, and I'm sorry to say it was absolutely useless.If you' ve caught the carving disease for real , in the end you'll have a good set of chisels , and you will do 90% of the job with them - so why not start now?.

Thanks to everyone

Your ideas and experience are most valued. I bought some camphor laurel at the WWW show, so I'll commandeer that, and in the meantime, look to source some of the other suggestions.

Now the next question is - are carving chisels a special breed? Are they different, for example, from turning chisels? David has some Maple turning chisels, and I think these are reasonable quality, though probably not HSS. They're pre war I think and were given to him by someone who had no use for them.

The small ones I tried are obviously pretty ordinary quality.It was a palm set I bought second hand, and they don't have a maker's name on them. They're certainly not Sorby or Pfeil!!!

What should a beginner look to purchase?

Ivan, thank you especially for your interest. David was blown away that someone from Spain answered, shows how far flung the woodworking forum is.

What, especially was wrong with the AEG carver? I'd like to be in a position to make an informed judgement about what to buy. I can cancel my order if it is really a waste
of money. My main problem is that I have no one to teach me how to use carving tools properly, and because I have not used hand tools before, I will probably be 'reinventing the wheel' the hard way, as all beginners usually do.

Cheers
LiliB

FIRST....use the tools you have on hand and learn to use them to the max. You will find limitations, only when you reach your limit will you realize what tools you need to set new limits. If you have a small selection of shapes, carve...carve...carve. As your skill develops with the tools you have you will then see the need for tools/shapes that you need for the next level.
I have seen some extraordinary carvings that were accomplished with only a couple of carving chisels. I have a fair collection of chisels/shapes and sizes and I find myself reaching for a "couple of old favorites" all the time. The ones I use the most are also the ones that I have found to be the easiest to sharpen...
SECOND....learn to sharpen
THIRD...learn to sharpen, WELL

One of the species of wood that I love to carve?? Mahogany. Very forgiving, when your tools get the slightest bit dull, the fibers "pile up" on the edge. The wood tells you when the edge is dull !!! What a neat feature.... AND (I'm in the United States) most all of the Luaun plywood that comes into this country on palettes (4'x8") made of the wood they have on hand....Mahogany !! and when the palettes are empty??? they become a throw away item, most hardware stores are glad to see them go away. I landed a palette some years ago that contained 6 4"x4" center supports 8' long that were Prima Vera....white mahogany !!! I still have some lying around for when I need something white...

Carve, carve carve...and good luck

Now the next question is - are carving chisels a special breed?
What should a beginner look to purchase?

Yes-the woodturning chisels are no good here; you could buy a small set of 6 or 12 tools, and start from there.My advice: better to buy smaller set of top quality stuff than a big set of cheap tools. If you don't want a set and choose to buy the tools one by one, make sure you get:
-a V-tool. You could do some carving ONLY with it., but very little without it.
-flat gouge-Nº 3 or 4
-deep gouge- Nº 8, 9 or 10
-skew chisel

Ivan, thank you especially for your interest. David was blown away that someone from Spain answered, shows how far flung the woodworking forum is

...small world, LiliB-Spain's just a click away

What, especially was wrong with the AEG carver? I can cancel my order if it is really a waste
of money. My main problem is that I have no one to teach me how to use carving tools properly, and because I have not used hand tools before, I will probably be 'reinventing the wheel' the hard way, as all beginners usually do.

The AEG tool was just lacking in power( and it had more of it than the Proxon!)-it wasn't that bad for small things, but I soon discovered I could do with a single sweep of the chisel more than the carver does for 3 times that time, so I started buyng gouges and never looked back.. To do real carving with a reciprocating tool, you should buy the right thing, and they cost about 500 EUR here- and 30 more for each chisel -so it's not a cheap option.
... learning to carve....best thing seems to join a carving club , if you have one at hand( it never stops to amaze me you have them in the English-speaking world- no such luxury here). If there's no such option, get some good carving book, Antony Dening's "Encyclopaedia of wood-carving techniques" did the job for me- I learnt to sharpen my tools and some really good tips thanks to this book, and there are hundreds of books on carving.... and then, you allways have this forum, don't you?
Happy New Year, and keep on carving!

Hi Mobjack, your advice is sound, and I will take it on board. I guess the best thing to do is to get myself some beginner tools and jump right in.

Hi Ivan
Your advice is most welcome, and from some of your work on the forum, it comes from a very talented, artistic person. I think you are right to suggest I learn to use hand tools and I will. I am a great believer in learning from books, and feel you can teach yourself almost anything from good books. Once the holiday season ends, I will search for some good books to help me.

Just out of interest, I would love to know what the 500 euro plus tool is. I have not been able to find anything apart from Proxxon, Dremel & Foredom on my net searches and am always interested in knowing what other technology is available. So please give me details of just which tool is the 'real one' for carvers, as distinct from the ones mentioned.

Cheers
LiliB

Originally Posted by LiliB

Just out of interest, I would love to know what the 500 euro plus tool is. I have not been able to find anything apart from Proxxon, Dremel & Foredom on my net searches and am always interested in knowing what other technology is available. So please give me details of just which tool is the 'real one' for carvers, as distinct from the ones mentioned.

Cheers
LiliB

Here: its' GAMMA ZINKEN CARVER (italian brand), 500W, 2 speeds motor, works both as a rotary &reciprocating tool....and costs 585 EUR, +VAT - the spare flex-shaft is 200...and a set of 5 tools is 216+VAT....you spend that money on Henry Taylor tools, they name a street in Shefield after you

Thanks Ivan

The machine looks fascinating and this is really serious money. I will satisfy my curiosity and search it out on the net to find its technical details.

Perhaps when I make a killing on the share market I'll go over to Europe and buy one.

Keep posting your beautiful work, and thanks for the advice and information.

Regards
Lili